Monday, March 04, 2013

Miscellanies

Call for Papers: A Miscellany of Miscellanies: popular poetic
collections and the eighteenth century canon

17 September 2013

St Peter's College, Oxford

Poetic miscellanies are vital to understanding the diversity of
eighteenth-century literary culture. These popular printed collections of
poetry and songs reflect fashions, popular taste and the literary market and
were the form in which many ordinary people would have read poetry in the
eighteenth century. As one of the most visible points of contact between the
shaping of the literary canon and the commercial demands of print culture, they
represent a particularly important and popular mediation of poetry in the
eighteenth century. Yet they have been largely neglected, because of their
bewildering number and variety: there were well over 1200 published between
1700-1780, and the contents of most of these are relatively unknown. This
conference will launch the Digital Miscellanies Index (http://digitalmiscellaniesindex.org)
a Leverhulme Trust-funded project that will create a freely available online
database of the contents of these collections. In displaying this material for
the first time, the Index will enable users to map the changing nature of
literary taste in the eighteenth century.

We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers on eighteenth-century
miscellanies and miscellany culture. Please provide the title and a 250-word
abstract of your proposed paper; your name; institutional affiliation where
applicable; email address; and a brief (100 words) biography. Send your
proposal as an attachment to miscellanies@spc.ox.ac.uk.

The deadline for receipt of proposals is 28 March 2013.

There will be a conference fee of £20 which will cover lunch,
coffee, and tea. The conference and database launch will be followed by ‘The
Chearful Companion’, an evening of eighteenth-century music, readings,
refreshments and craft. The cost of this event will be an additional £15.

All enquiries should be addressed to the Conference Coordinators,
Abigail Williams and Jennifer Batt, at miscellanies@spc.ox.ac.uk.